Global mobile phone shipments to decline by 14.6% due to Covid1-9: Gartner

Smartphone shipments will achieve a slightly slower decline of 13.7 per cent year over year to total 1.3 billion units this year

Mobile phone shipments will decline 14.6 per cent in 2020 as people spend less and use their gadgets for a longer time because of the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak, said a Gartner report on Tuesday.

Smartphone shipments will decline of 13.7 per cent year over year, Gartner forecasted.

"While users have increased the use of their mobile phones to communicate with colleagues, work partners, friends and families during lockdowns, reduced disposable income will result in fewer consumers upgrading their phones," Ranjit Atwal, Senior Research Director at Gartner, said in a statement.

"As a result, phone lifetimes will extend from 2.5 years in 2018 to 2.7 years in 2020," said Atwal.

In 2020, affordable 5G phones were expected to be the catalyst to increase phone replacements, but now it is unlikely to be the case. 5G phones are now forecast to represent only 11 per cent of total mobile phone shipments in 2020.

"The delayed delivery of some 5G flagship phones is an ongoing issue," said Annette Zimmermann, Research Vice President at Gartner. "Moreover, the lack of 5G geographical coverage along with the increasing cost of the 5G phone contract will impact the choice of a 5G phone."

Overall, spending on 5G phones will be impacted in most regions apart from China, where continued investment in 5G infrastructure is expected, allowing providers in China to effectively market 5G phones.

The combined global shipments PCs, tablets, and mobile phones are on pace to decline 13.6 per cent in 2020, according to the forecast. PC shipments are expected to decline 10.5 per cent this year. Shipments of notebooks, tablets, and Chromebooks are forecast to decline slower than the PC market overall in 2020.

"The forecasted decline in the PC market, in particular, could have been much worse," said Atwal. "However, government lockdowns due to COVID-19 forced businesses and schools to enable millions of people to work from home and increase spending on new notebooks, Chromebooks, and tablets for those workers. Education and government establishments also increased spending on those devices to facilitate e-learning."

Gartner said that 48 per cent of employees will likely work remotely at least part of the time after the COVID-19 pandemic, compared to 30 per cent pre-pandemic.

Overall, the work from home trends will make IT departments shift to more notebooks, tablets and Chrome devices for work. "This trend combined with businesses required to create flexible business continuity plans will make business notebooks displace desk-based PCs through 2021 and 2022," said Atwal.